3 January 2008
BBC Nottingham
Ellie Harrison has been writing down her thoughts every time she has a cuppa.
Every time artist Ellie Harrison has a cup of tea she records her thoughts. She has been doing this since January 2006.
Ellie has now gained a cult following on the internet – receiving correspondence from all over the world.
“Because my thoughts are quite short and quite easy to digest it’s the sort of thing that people do go back to.”
Listen to our interview with Ellie.
Tea Blog entries
30 April 2007: The Glastonbury tickets thing is one almighty cock-up. How many people try on three occasions to buy the bloody tickets and then find out they can’t go?
31 August 2006: Wild mushrooms are definitely going to be my new hobby – it’s like hunting for vegetarians.
3 February 2006: I hate it when you suddenly remember about death and it doesn’t seem real and you begin to feel dizzy and sick.
25 October 2007: There’s definitely something characteristic about a posh face. It’s so easy to spot who’s a bit upper-classy just by looking at them.
Day to day data
This isn’t the first time the Nottingham Trent University fine art graduate has recorded lots of day to day data.
Between the ages of 22 and 23 she took a picture of everything she ate.
In 2003 she then recorded a year of sneezes, she’s charted her daily gaseous emissions, all the journeys she made on London Transport and recorded every sentence she uttered that contains swear words.
“The tea blog is more reflective, more subjective information about my life.”
Ellie is now planning a move away from introspective art.
“Tea blog is the last of this sort of working – where I document information about my everyday life. Tea blog is going to end the 31 December 2008. After that I’m going to change my work so that it is more outward looking.”
Read Ellie Harrison’s Tea Blog.
The day job
After graduation Ellie spent some time working in London but missed Nottingham.
She’s now back in the city working six days a week on her own art and one day a week teaching fine art at Nottingham Trent University.
She also works as an usher at the Broadway Cinema every Thursday evening.
“It’s amazing how differently you get treated in different roles… people’s attitudes were one of the reasons I wanted to do the blog.”
Less tea please
Has the blog changed her? Well, she admits she’s cut down on her tea drinking and now owns a very large cup (not like the one in the picture) so she doesn’t have to think too much!